


Questioned Loyalties

by LadyZephyr



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Oneshot, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 03:29:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29851896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyZephyr/pseuds/LadyZephyr
Summary: Delphine contemplates being stuck at Revival.
Relationships: Delphine Cormier/Cosima Niehaus
Comments: 4
Kudos: 30





	Questioned Loyalties

**Author's Note:**

> I filled a prompt, for the first time in forever.

Delphine becomes more and more suspicious as she recovers. She has no desire to remain on this stupid island. She can’t do anything here. There is no Cosima.

“You want an ideal addition to your island?” Delphine tries to keep her tone as calm as possible. Difficult when her scar tissue pulls painfully every time she moves.

“Yes. He does.” The messenger shrugs. “You have certain talents we want, Dr. Cormier. Talents  _ he _ wants. You will live and work here with us. You will be one of us.”

She hears about PT Westmoreland. But never meets the man. She sees the house, looming over the seemingly primitive settlement of revival. She refuses a tent, and is offered one of the yurts. Delphine reluctantly accepts. She wonders if she will be summoned to meet this… founder of Neolution. Or if she will dwell here until she can no longer damage their agenda.

  
Delphine says nothing. She isn’t sure she can buy into a nearly 200 year old man existing. She isn’t sure she can buy into any of this. Some of the science seems solid enough to make her wonder. She wonders if telling him about Cosima, and about her love for Cosima would get her chucked back out of Revival. Surely, if they are eugenecists they would consider homosexuality, or bisexuality, a deficit. Even if a spectrum of sexuality was considered scientifically accurate. She couldn’t see any eugenicist accepting it as a natural part of the human experience. Nevermind that she’d been the lover of one of the clones, and surely they question her loyalties. She would, in their position.

Delphine spends the first few days, once she can walk again, trying to learn as much as she can about this place. And why on earth they wanted her in the first place. The grim thought that they want her as some kind of neolution breeding stock never quite goes away. Even after they’ve put her to work in the clinic. Some people seem to know about the clones, but only a few. Perhaps they were also recruited from DYAD, or Brightborn. Recruited, Delphine huffs, she might have well been kidnapped. Brightborn wanted her dead, for whatever reason, Delphine still wasn’t entirely sure. 

  
She is being watched. Delphine knows. They rarely leave her alone. Watch her all the time. They want to use her, but they do not trust her. There are children in Revival, Delphine realizes. Some born here, some brought here for some kind of tests or treatment.

The one word that they will tell her, that comes up over and over again is prolongevity. When Delphine asks around about contacting someone outside. But he refuses. Multiple times. Not allowed to contact her family. Not allowed to contact Cosima. They do not trust her. Delphine wonders if she’ll be declared dead in her absence. And she worries. She worries about Cosima. About all the clone sisters she vowed to love and protect.

Months pass and she wonders what Cosima is doing. If she’s managed to find some kind of treatment. If she is alive. But no one will tell her anything. And the more she asks about the clones, the less anyone trusts her. 

  
“What is she to you?” The messenger looks back. This isn’t the first time she’s asked. They never tell her anything. Even after she’s pressed the subject again with several other scientists. No one even confirms that Cosima is still living. And admittedly, Delphine must acknowledge the bleak possibility that Cosima has died in her absence.

  
Delphine stares him down silently. Trying to find an honest and inoffensive answer. She cannot take any kind of risk. “I was her monitor, her physician and for a time...her lover.” Maybe they already know. Maybe she could pass it off as fulfilling her role as monitor. It isn’t as if they want her to start talking about how good it felt to make love with Cosima.

  
He scoffs and tells her to get back to work. Delphine is sick of being babysat. And the heart of Neolution isn’t a place she wants to be. Even if it may extend her lifespan. What use can she be here? Can she even keep her promise from here? Whether Cosima’s alive or dead, she knows she must keep it.

Weeks turn into months again and Delphine stops asking. Decides to wait instead for an opportunity, any opportunity to contact the outside world. One day, someone will get careless and she will take advantage of it. One day, she’ll find a way to reach out and get an answer on Cosima’s fate one way or another. Only then will she let herself grieve. Until then, she will presume Cosima’s alive. She will hope, and will choose to believe it.

Still nothing prepares her for the night her question is answered. She hears a ruckus outside about two girls brought in from the woods and in this cold, Delphine thinks she can do some good for these strangers. She knows Susan Duncan has been occupying a house down the coast. Has heard a rumour that a little girl was with her, and wondered if it might be Charlotte. But this stuns her into silence, and reverence. 

Cosima standing looking confused as the messenger leads her into camp stuns her for only a moment. Delphine rushes into her arms, presses their foreheads together but realizes swiftly that Cosima is unwell, too cold, too weak. Seeing Charlotte surprises her a little as well, but then again, Susan Duncan was around and the child was snatched away after the death of Marion Bowles. It makes sense. She supposes. But Charlotte was no threat to Neolution, not at this tender age. But, Cosima… Cosima might be. This is the one place her beloved but brazen Cosima shouldn’t be, Delphine thinks grimly, but she cannot stop her heart from responding.

“Cosima?” Delphine calls as her one-time lover collapses into her arms. She feels a surge of fear. Cosima must be worsening again by now. How bad are Cosima’s growths now? Is… is she dying? Has she made it here to her only to die?

They get Cosima to the yurt, and when they’re finally alone she regrets every fantasy she’s had about just holding Cosima in her arms again. Yes, she has that but hypothermia wouldn’t have been part of her fantasies. She undresses, muttering reassurances, and climbs into bed with her. Both everything and nothing she wanted. 

  
She lays next to her shivering Cosima, skin on skin. Stroking at her face, her dreads. Trying her best to warm her.

Cosima drifts in and out of consciousness, occasionally clinging to her. Delphine wonders if their  _ homework _ is a cure. She desperately hopes so, Cosima’s breathing does not sound good. And time, time must be growing very short now. 

“Je t’aime.” Delphine breathes into her ear. Keeps pressed as closely as she can. She hears the door open, knows that it’s the messenger looking at them cuddled up in her bed. And despite it being exactly what one needs to do for hypothermia. Delphine is aware it looks… intimate. 

It is intimate. Delphine thinks, kissing Cosima’s skin, her lips lightly. She strokes her skin, her hair and loves her. And it’s far more than she’s dared to hope for in months. It pleases her, and it worries her. And she wonders if Cosima will even remember this in the morning.  


“So warm…” Cosima mumbles. Her eyes open, darting around the room. But Cosima’s not all here, Delphine thinks. Another brush with death.

“Oui. Je vais te réchauffer, mon amour.” Delphine says, even though she suspects they are watching her. They may like her mind, and what she can do… but this… this will make her less desirable. She can save Cosima, Delphine thinks, but they’re going to punish her for it. 

She will be sent away. Delphine thinks. Either she or Cosima will be sent away. And it is only a matter of time before she finds out which of them will be sent away from Revival. 


End file.
